Mechanical movement



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR JACOBS, OF NVOBCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB, BY

. DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE SMYTHE MANUFACTUR- ING COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 361,162, dated April 12, 1887.

Application filed August 23, 1886. Serial No. 211,583. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR LJAcons, a citizen of the United States, residing at-Wor cester, in the county of WVorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Mechanical Movements, of which the following, together with the accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to make and use the same.

The object of my present invention is to provide a practical and efficient mechanical movement, adapted for gripping and releasing purposes, and whereby wires, rods, or needles can be worked or fed forward or backward, or passed through interposed bodies or substances, said mechanical movement being applicable for use in connection with various classes of machinery, and various situations in the mechanic arts. These objects I attain by mechanism shown in the drawings, and explained in the following description, the particular subject-matter claimed being hereinafter definitely specified.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional view of my improved mechanical movement as applied in apparatus for working a reciprocating needle. Fig. 21s a front view of the grippingfingers with the jaws closed. Fig. 3 is a front View of the plate or frame on which the fingers are arranged, and the lifting device. Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but with the fingers raised and jaws opened. Fig. 5 isa modification showing the tops of the fingers or levers backed by a yielding, instead of a rigid, support. Fig. 6 is a faceview of one of the fingers or jaw-levers, and Fig. 7 is a horizontal section through the jaws.

In the present instance my improved mechanical movement is shown as employed in a book-sewing machine, or other similar sewing-machine for passing needles through an interposed object, and front and rear sets of grippers are employed in connection with a reciprocating head-block and a governing-cam, one set of grippers being operative for holding the rod or needle while the other is released, and vice versa.

The essential features of my improved mech- 5o anism consist of a pair of peculiarly constructed gripping fingers or levers, with back supporters for said levers, and a lifting or depressing follower or stud, which parts are disposed for action, as hereinafter more fully explained.

In reference to .parts, A denotes the headblock orframe; B, the lifting-piece or follower, which in the present instance consists of a stud or projection fixed in a vertically-re ciprocating block or bar, 13, worked by a traveler or wheel, (see dotted line, Fig. 1,) that engages with the groove 0 of a camplate, C, as the head-block is moved back and forth from one end of said plate to the other, the head traveling along the straight guideway or groove a.

D D indicate the gripping fingers or levers, formed of a suitable shape, and arranged face. to face in pairs. The lower ends of the fin- 7o gers which act as grlpping-jaws are preferably grooved on their faces laterally, as at d d, to receive the rod or needle, while their upper ends are beveled on the exterior at e e, and hollowed on their inner surfaces at f f, in the manner illustrated, so as to form a wedgeshaped opening or space between the two fingers, within which space the actuating part of the follower B is located. This opening is somewhat larger than the follower B, and the surfaces f f are curved or inclined on such lines that they "will act, in conjunction with the follower B, to impart the desired movement to the gripping fingers D as the followers are raised and depressed.

The lower and upper portions of the fingers D are fitted with suitable bearing-surfaces at 0' and j, which surfaces rest against and slide upon the compressors and supporters E and F, which latter are fixed to the head or frame A. Shoulders n are formed on the fingers or levers D, that serve to limit their downward movement by contact with the supporters F. Said shoulders are located so as to stop the fingers when the jaws d are at proper position for seizing the wire or needle \V.

The back supporters E and F may be constructed as pins or studs fixed in the head A, or as flanges or projections formed thereon, or the head may be made with a cavity or recess for receiving the fingers and the back supports be the edges of said cavity. The distance apart of the lower supporters, F, is equal to the thickness of the two fingers at their fulcrum or center in, and said fingers are tapered toward their lower ends suffieiently to permit the opening of the jaws d as they move upward. The distance apart of the top compressors or supporters, E, is equal to the distance across the two fingers when their upper parts are brought together, as in Fig. 4. Said compressors E are formed and located in relation to the fingers D in such manner that the bearingsurfaces i of the fingers will ass below the compressors, and the beveled portions (2 will permit the top ends of the fingers to separate, as in Fig. 2.

The action of the mechanism is as follows: Assuming that the parts are in position, as at the left in Fig. 1, and in Fig. 4, or with follower B elevated. The grippers or fingers D are in this position suspended upon the follower B by their inwardly-curved upper ends, and are retained, with the jaws 01 open, by the compressors E pressing against the surfaces 2'. The follower B, being now moved downward,

strikes the surfacef, and the fingers D meet- 1 ing but slight frictional resistance, and being free to move, are thereby forced downward until the shoulders a strike the supporters F. This stops the further downward movement of the fingers D, and thus causes said follower to act as a wedge between the inclined or curved surfaces j, thus forcing apart the up per ends of the fingers, and by leverage against thelower supportersF, as f ulcrums, causing the jaws d d to close together with a firm and rigid grip upon the rod, wire, or needle V. The bevel e at the upper end of the fingers is so formed and disposed as to allow the top ends to separate and the jaws d to close together at the proper instant in the movement. The parts are then in position, as at the right of Fig. 1, and as in Fig. 2. lVith the upward movement of the follower B the first part of the movement releases the wedging action between the surfaces f. The follower then striking the overhanging ends lifts the fingers, and the beveled surfaces 6, in conjunction with the top compressors, E, open the jaws (Z d, the fulcrum action of the fingers then being against each other at the position m.

Vith the mechanism arranged as in Fig. l, the two sets of gripping-fingers seize and release the needle W alternately as the head is moved back and forth along the guideway, the needle at all times being held by either one set of grippers or the other. With this movement the needle may be passed through an interposed body or substance, as L, the

grippers D alternately letting go and passing around said body to take a new hold at the other side thereof, while the needle passes through said substance.

In some instances it may be preferred to have the jaws open by an elastic instead of a rigid and positive action, in which case a spring, E, may be employed for pressing to gether the upper ends of the fingers D, instead of rigid compressors E, said spring being fitted as shown in Fig. 5, or in any other suitable manner for effecting equivalent action.

Although I have herein shown abar, B, and cam O, for raising and depressing the fol lower B, it will be understood that any other suitable means for imparting motion to said follower B may be employed as an equivalent for such actuating devices, and said follower can, if desired, be made as an arrowhead upon the end of a rod, as indicated in Fig. 3, instead of as a stud projecting laterally into the space between the fingers.

This mechanical movement may be successfully employed in the mechanism of carpetlooms for gripping and carrying the pilewires; also, for the wire-feed of machines for making staples, nails, barbed fencing, cardteeth, and other articles where a wire is intermittently fed forward or into a machine for a predetermined distance. Of course it will be understood that in the adaptation to the various purposes of i use the head or support would be given different size and shape, and the cams or operating devices would be arranged to act at such intervals and instances of time as the requirements of the work demanded.

Vhat I claim as of my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The within-described mechanical movement, consisting of a pair of loose fingers or levers centrally fulcruined against each other and confined between back supporters, F, and a follower, B, disposed between the upper hooked end of said fingers, and adapted to wedge between them when depressed and to release and lift said fingers when elevated, all combined substantially as set forth.

2. The pair of fingers 1), provided with curved or inclined surfaces f and inwardlyoverhanging ends, and having stops or shoulders-n, in combination with the back supporters, F, fixed on the head or frame, a reciprocating follower, B, disposed between said surfaces f and overhanging ends, and the top compressors, E, adapted to press the top ends of said fingers toward each other, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination of the head A, provided with supporters F, the gripping-fingers D, the finger-compressors E, the follower B, follower-block B, and means for imparting reeiprocative action to said follower in a direction longitudinal of the fingers.

4. The combination of the movable headblock A, the front and rear sets of loose grip- Witness my hand this 18th day of August, ping-fingers arranged in said head and con- A. I). 1886. fined between back supporters and top compressors substantially in the manner shown, ARTHUR I. JACOBS.

5 the follower B, engaging said fingers, the reeiprocative follower-blocks B, and the cam Vitnesses: C,'substantial1yas and for the purposes set CHAS. H. BURLEIGH, forth. ELLA P. BLENUS. 

